Happy Working Song

At the end of April, during final exams, I had a job interview with a branch of the government. It was completely on a whim because my Mum heard about it at work and e-mailed me to tell me about it, so I applied. I have been looking for a job for the summer for a very long time (I would prefer longer, but school is a full time job on its own, literally). Of course I really wanted a job with the government and I really wanted this job. Every summer they hire summer students and I figured that with the courses I was taking, even though I wasn’t finished the program, I could still look pretty appealing.

I sent in my resume and cover letter and waited to be contacted. I knew that it wouldn’t be until the Monday morning and that I would probably be going in for the interview that afternoon. Of course I spent Sunday night freaking out about what to wear, I actually felt like I had no clothes. You know that feeling?!

Monday morning rolls around and I have everything ready to go just incase. I get up early so I can go for a run so I would be home and showered before 9am when the person who could possibly call me would be in her office. I get a call around 10am asking if I could come in for 1pm, I was so excited that I didn’t just get shoved aside because I didn’t apply sooner.

I get all dressed up, I put on some nice dress pants and a fashionable sweater with a cute necklace and my favourite black heals. I head downtown an arrive a good half hour early (I have this fear that I’ll be late for things so I always end up getting places about 15-30 minutes early).

I walk around for a bit, but after a little while I decide to go to the building. I take a seat in the waiting area when who shows up but my Mum. Until this point I had been able to contain my nerves. The minute my Mum starts talking to me I can feel my nerves building and I was about to cry. I think I was just so overwhelmed with school and this amazing job opportunity coming up at the last minute.

During the interview I felt so confident, something just came over me. I put all the fears I was feeling behind me and stepped up to the challenge. That is until they mentioned that the job was from May-August, that is when my mind went “well crap, you can’t get this at all,” I explained that I was in school until July 9 (which I did mention in my cover letter) and they made a note of that and then we actually continued to talk. We talked about how a full government job interview would unfold and different style of interviews. I was curious and the man interviewing me seemed interested in telling me!

By the end of the week I got a call from the government telling me what I assumed, I didn’t get the job due to my availability….BUT they were actually looking into creating a job for me for July-August. SAY WHAT? Of course she mentioned that it might be a little while until they got back to me because they had to go through a few managers to get a summer position made for me.

Guess what?! I got a call today letting me know that everything had come through and that I got the job, the one that they made for me. How cool is that? It makes me so happy that they wanted me that much to make up a job for me! WOW!

Needless to say I have been doing a happy dance all day! Quietly while I was at school because some of those girls are competitive, and then out loud when I got home!

So that is the new and exciting thing that has come along! Of course I need to finish up the last 6 weeks of semester two and then I will be able to do this new and exciting thing!

Question: How do you over come the nerves before something like a job interview or a race?

I’ve found what works for me is giving myself a pep talk, there is a lot of positive talk and a lot of deep breaths.